The Red Rover: A Tale

by James Fenimore Cooper

“Such, sir, is the opinion of one who overrates the powers of his enemy, because use, and much talking, have taught him to reverence it as something more than human. Mr Wilder, none are so daring or so modest, as those who have long been accustomed to place their dependence on their own exertions. I have been nigher to a flag even, and yet you see I continue to keep on this mortal coil.”

“Hark! ’Tis a drum. The stranger is going to his guns.”

The Rover listened a moment, and was able to catch the well-known beat which calls the people of a vessel of war to quarters. First casting a glance upward at his sails, and then throwing a general and critical look on all and every thing which came within the influence of his command, he calmly answered,—

“We will imitate his example, Mr Wilder. Let the order be given.”

Until now, the crew of the “Dolphin” had either been occupied in such necessary duties as had been assigned them, or were engaged in gazing with curious eyes at the ship which so eagerly sought to draw as near as possible to their own dangerous vessel. The low but continued hum of voices, sounds such alone as discipline permitted, had afforded the only evidence of the interest they took in the scene; but, the instant the first tap on the drum was heard, each groupe severed, and every man repaired, with bustling activity, to his well-known station. The stir among the crew was but of a moment’s continuance, and it was succeeded by the breathing stillness which has already been noticed in our pages on a similar occasion. The officers, however, were seen making hasty, but strict, inquiries into the conditions of their several commands; while the munitions of war, that were quickly drawn from their places of deposit, announced a preparation more serious than ordinary. The Rover himself had disappeared; but it was not long before he was again seen at his elevated look-out accoutred for the conflict that appeared to approach, employed, as ever, in studying the properties, the force, and the evolutions of his advancing antagonist. Those who knew him best, however, said that the question of combat was not yet decided in his mind; and hundreds of eager glances were thrown in the direction of his contracting eye, as if to penetrate the mystery in which he still chose to conceal his purpose. He had thrown aside the sea-cap, and stood with the fair hair blowing about a brow that seemed formed to give birth to thoughts far nobler than those which apparently had occupied his life, while a species of leathern helmet lay at his feet, the garniture of which was of a nature to lend an unnatural fierceness to the countenance of its wearer. Whenever this boarding-cap was worn, all in the ship were given to understand that the moment of serious strife was at hand; but, as yet, that never-failing evidence of the hostile intention of their leader was unnoticed.

In the mean time, each officer had examined into, and reported, the state of his division; and then, by a sort of implied permission on the part of their superiors, the death-like calm, which had hitherto reigned among the people, was allowed to be broken by suppressed but earnest discourse; the calculating chief permitting this departure from the usual rules of more regular cruisers, in order to come at the temper of the crew, on which so much of the success of his desperate enterprises so frequently depended.

Chapter XXVII.

“For he made me mad,
To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman.”

King Henry IV

The moment was now one of high and earnest excitement. Each individual, who was charged with a portion of the subordinate authority of the ship, had examined into the state of his command, with that engrossing care which always deepens as responsibility draws nigher to the proofs of its being worthily bestowed. The voice of the harsh master had ceased to inquire into the state of those several ropes and chains that were deemed vital to the safety of the vessel; each chief of a battery had assured and re-assured himself that his artillery was ready for instant, and the most effective, service; extra ammunition had already issued from its dark and secret repository; and even the hum of dialogue had ceased, in the more engrossing and all-absorbing interest of the scene. Still the quick and ever-changing glance of the Rover could detect no reason to distrust the firmness of his people. They were grave, as are ever the bravest and steadiest in the hour of trial; but their gravity was mingled with no signs of concern. It seemed rather like the effect of desperate and concentrated resolution, such as braces the human mind to efforts which exceed the ordinary daring of martial enterprise. To this cheering exhibition of the humour of his crew the wary and sagacious leader saw but three exceptions; they were found in the persons of his lieutenant and his two remarkable associates.